


Acontium

by PSIDontKnow



Series: Wicker Wrapped Brimstone [3]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 18:54:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2662715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PSIDontKnow/pseuds/PSIDontKnow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>{Loose grip on, gravity falls, sky blinding, crumbling walls}</p><p>Eventually, even lies become blessings</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acontium

**Author's Note:**

> Set From the end of Shades of Three to the Vanitas part in Just One Yesterday.  
> Once again, characters are left vague

     Vanitas scratched at his neck for the umpteenth time, slender fingers digging in under the collar there, and growled.  
 _They had tricked him._  
     He tugs at the collar, the damned Yew and Cold Iron collar, growling louder, eyes glowing a poisonous yellow before his fingers began to burn and he has to push his emotions and magic back down again. They had tricked him, him, someone who is - was - all powerful, able to strike fear into the hearts of immortals and mortals like with a single glance,  
      _and they tricked him!_  
     He's angry, beyond angry, but this fragile child's body cannot do anything like break the collar they placed on him after a sleep spell. It's an utter betrayal and he can feel an ache in his bones from where he's been separated too far, a fragment without the rest of himself and he's almost tempted to punch the walls, kick out the window and use his limited control on his magic to leave, even if it sears his throat. He doesn't though, because there's iron over the window as well and this body is fragile and fleeting. He knows the way it went wrong the first time they tried to take him, when he got too mad, and now this collar keeps him in check.  
     Under thumb.  
     Caught like a fairy in a jar.

     The collar is still there, a year later, when he's given free roam over the non-human side of Arcanum's castle. It annoys him and bothers him, and he tries his best to hide both it and the burns from where he's tested his limits with high collared shirts. They have him do meaningless chores, to keep his mind off of things, and it's mindless enough that he zones out enough to not notice when someone walks behind him. He wouldn't have noticed her at all, if her finger didn't catch in his collar.  
     "Ah, they caught you this way, eh?" Her voice is rich with both mirth and an accent and he slaps her hand away growling and backing away from her, hands tight on his broom. His body's still small, that of a boy just entering his teens, but he can still alert someone else for help, if he screams loud enough. The power radiating off of her and the spear she carries without a thought tells him he most likely wouldn't even get a chance to scream if she wanted to hurt him.  
     "You're a mixed up little thing, ain'tcha? You feel like a Fragment and everything else all at the same time, no wonder they want to keep you here." Her voice still lilts like she's teasing, but her smile is still sympathetic and he just squints at her before snapping.  
     "What's it matter to you?"  
     "Well, I just don't like listening to you buzz with pent up energy every time I'm here, it's not good for your body or my nerves. If you like, you can train with me."  
     "How, I can't do anything with this stupid thing on!" Vanitas can't help but snarl out the words, tugging on the thin collar with annoyance.  
     "I know that, but the Old Man owes me a few favors and there's a training room below ground the Fae use. Entirely iron, but you could have the collar off while you're getting the snot beat out of you." It takes less than a heart beat for him to return the vicious grin she's giving him.  
     "Do it."

     Once a month, she comes back and beats him thoroughly, lance versus a sword he's loaned, and, on other occasions, fist to fist. He learns her name is Fang and she's been 'caught' by Arcanum in a very different way, compliance and information in exchange for safety for someone. He never learns who this someone is, and he can't really care, there's no room for questions from his side, powers slim and unused compared to the elder Fae's. The iron in the walls weakens both of them, but it's still exhilarating to be able to do this much.  
     The rest of the time, he's confined to the castle, and, later, the grounds around it. He doesn't see Aqua or Terra often, just sometimes when they come around for something, and Ventus is never there, the ache in Vanitas's bones never abating because of it. It makes him angry every time, and he's not allowed to use the training room without Fang there for now, so he decides to take his anger out on the grass, stomping as childishly as he can, until he comes across a patch of flowers, someone yelling over them as some idiot pulls them up.  
     "Hey! Stop that! You're killing them jackass!" He snaps irritably, ignoring the way the woman stops yelling and looks at him gratefully. The person looks up sullenly, a fistful of flowers crushed in his grip.  
     "I have to pull the weeds and these aren't supposed to be here."  
     "Your face won't be attached to your head if you don't back the fuck away and fuck off somewhere else." All it takes is that and an intimidating glare, combined with the small gathering of darkness around him to make the idiot leave. His glare turns to the woman, floating over the patch of flowers, as he rubs his neck to soothe away the pain.  
     "Why didn't you yell louder?"  
     "Not everyone can see me, but these flowers are mine, they're very dear. Thank you for saving them, someone must have made him weed for a punishment and he went after my flowers."  
     "What, are they your grave or something?"  
     "Not mine, but someone dear to me." He stops then, because there's a part of him, from before he was split nine ways to Sunday, that was human and understands that feeling.  
     "Fuck. Do you want me to...." It's left unfinished, Vanitas unused to doing more than growling or hissing at people, his kindnesses few and far between. He ends up smoothing down the soil, making sure the flowers won't lose anymore of their brethren, listening to the woman's ghost humming gently. He wonders if that was what she did in life, soothe people.  
     He starts tending to the flowers more often.

     When he's older, the collar is exchanged for two bracelets and they assign him two jobs, one for the human side of things, and one for Arcanum. Groundskeeper is one, because someone obviously has been talking to Aerith. The other is hunting clean up -most often body disposal- and his first job is where he sees another piece of himself. It's painful to see Ventus for the first time in years, holding onto a little boy that's bawling his eyes out, and all Vanitas can do is sneer as he passes them. By the time he's done with the house, following the instructions to torch it and call the fire department, Ventus is gone.  
     He shows up again at Arcanum, the same little boy in tow.  
     Vanitas ignores him until he can't, until he has to drag him to that sparring room and attack him with all his anger, attacks him until they're both worn and bloody. He leaves the room, not answering when Ventus calls after him with a question.  
     "Who are you?"

     His life is routine after that, tending to the grounds, tending to the bodies, tending to his own wounds after he gains more people willing to spar with him and more freedom. Always tending to something. He doesn't tend to Ventus, only bothering to give the blond any attention when he wants to fight, Vanitas can take his frustrations out then, everything about Ventus that angers and hurts him. They fight when Terra disappears, they fight when Aqua dissapears, they fight when Ventus can't stand being alone and teaching the three kids left to him.  
     They don't fight when Ventus dies.  
     They can't, not when one of them is dead, and the other has collapsed to the floor, gripping his chest, mouth gaping like a fish out of water. All his years are gone and suddenly he's the little, bloody kid in Eraqus's domain, something red hot stabbing into his chest. He only finds out what it is when the boy comes back, his fellow students in tow, but the boy was Ventus's student, he's the one that seeks out Vanitas and tells him that Ventus was gone, nothing but a trail of blood left.  
     A botched peacekeeping mission he says, words trembling and shaking, and Vanitas does what comes naturally.  
     He fights the boy, hitting him with all his strength until the iron and yew bands - upped to three on each wrist now that he's older - start to burn too painfully and the silver haired brat is pulling him off the brunette.  
     Nothing happens past that, nothing, nothing.  
     It's what he tells himself when he starts seeing Ventus out of the corner of his eyes, blue eyes glowing green instead, when he swears that it - for it's a thing, a hallucination surely, unable to be seen even by Aerith - starts talking and telling him things. It's been a bad day of trying to ignore the Ventus-thing and failing, when he feels more than see someone come stand behind him while he's raking leaves.  
      _"Nice hickey Fang."_  
     "Nice hickey Fang." He doesn't even realize that he had repeated the words, much less that they were true until he turns around, eyes going to the faint blush on Fang's cheeks and the unabashed grin, the bruise standing out against the tanned skin stretched across her clavicle.  
     "Nice going runt, to be able to see that without turning." Her voice is somewhat proud, though it's most likely not of him, but of the noticeable hickey and he just rolls his eyes, leaning on his rake. The Ventus - thing next to him mocks the pose, leaning on his own imaginary rake.  
     Maybe, he'll have to stop ignoring it so much.

**Author's Note:**

> Ahhhh, I really need to finish Shades of Three, but Vanitas, he speaks to me  
> Such a dick.


End file.
